In PA, they have to be 16. My son is 11 and has been hunting since he was 6. He's gotten 5 whitetails and two exotics so far. I think he could be ready to hunt alone at 13, but it's not allowed.

When I say alone, I mean he's in a stand and we both know our locations. With 2-ways, we could check on each other.

When I started hunting, my dad just gave me the 410 or 20ga and said, "have fun". Those were different times.